How Illinois Allocates $84,000 Drug for Hepatitis C

Treatment's High Cost Required Stringent Criteria, Official Says

The $84,000-a-patient cost of the Sovaldi hepatitis C treatment has intensified a national debate among lawmakers, insurers and economists about the value of expensive medicines to society at large. The dilemma sparked by Sovaldi, which is made by Gilead Sciences, is also presenting hard choices to state Medicaid programs. In Illinois, for instance, officials recently instituted a new set of 25 stringent criteria for using Sovaldi that includes treating only those patients with the most advanced stage of liver disease and...